


Say Yee Love Me

by lulumonnie



Series: AUs to Blame on the Crimily [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Bad Fashion Choices, Bad Puns, But they're gay so it's okay, Cowboy AU, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Hakowboy and Cowbato, Horses, I blame this entirely on the Crime Fam, M/M, No beta we die like human beings, Ostriches, Rated T for light swearing, They're in love and own a ranch, Will I go to jail for this? Probably., like really bad puns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:21:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25368289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lulumonnie/pseuds/lulumonnie
Summary: The slightly cursed Bakoda Cowboy AU you never knew you needed.
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Bato/Hakoda (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: AUs to Blame on the Crimily [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1837054
Comments: 28
Kudos: 70





	Say Yee Love Me

**Author's Note:**

> I dedicate this to the crimily, this is your fault. Ily.

Hakoda woke up to someone shaking him.

‘Dads, dads, the ostriches are hatching, you have to get up!!’, the voice of his son broke through his dream.

‘Tell them they need to wait until it’s mornin’’, Bato, who was pulling Hakoda closer groaned.

‘THEY’RE HATCHING RIGHT NOW’, Sokka yelled, insistently shaking his dads.

‘Sokka, we’ve seen them hatch like twenty times already. We don’t need to catch it every time’, Hakoda grumbled, refusing to open his eyes.

‘Nice Dr. Seuss moment there, sweetums’, Bato said and Hakoda could hear the smile in his husband’s voice.

‘Thanks, honeybun’, Hakoda murmured. Sokka groaned.

‘Can you guys just stop being mushy and get up, I haven’t seen this in a few years and Zuko really wants to see it too. Aang’s super excited as well.’

Hakoda groaned but lifted his face from Bato’s chest and slowly got up, blinking the sleep from his eyes. Sokka was standing next to their bed, bouncing on his heels that were stuck in his crocs. He looked as excited as he was when the ostriches had first hatched six years ago shortly after the three of them and Katara had moved to this ranch. Hakoda smiled to himself. Seeing his 22-year-old son behave like an excited kid again was quite heart-warming.

‘Just come quickly’, Sokka said, heading out the door again, presumably towards the stables where they kept the ostriches, the cows and the horses.

‘You know, I thought we’d be able to sleep in for once today’, Bato grumbled, slowly getting out of bed as well. He walked over to the closet and pulled out an extremely loud and pink shirt that was covered in palm trees, boomerangs and horses.

‘You’re really going for that shirt?’, Hakoda said, a smile playing on his lips.

‘Oh, you know you love it. It’s extremely kawaii’, Bato answered with a shit-eating grin.

‘I love you’, Hakoda said and walked over to give his husband a long and sweet kiss that was interrupted by Sokka yelling _DADS_ on the top of his voice.

‘WE’RE COMING’, Bato yelled back and the two of them headed to the stables, Bato sporting his pink shirt over his pyjama bottoms and Hakoda with a long and flowing bathrobe covered in tiny cowboy hats. Bato had brought that home from the store as a joke gift so they’d finally be able to live according to the ‘yeehaw lifestyle’. Hakoda had argued that they literally owned a ranch and both regularly wore cowboy hats, but he loved the robe nonetheless. For good measure, and to really drive home the lifestyle, both of them refused to wear crocs or birkenstocks to walk outside and firmly relied on a set of neon pink and neon turquoise cowboy boots. Katara often said that looking at her dads made her eyes hurt. Both Hakoda and Bato bathed in that comment and they made it their duty to embarrass their kids even further. As Bato would say _What else are dads for?_

When the two of them arrived at the stables, they found a whole throng of young adults whispering and standing around the ostrich enclosure. It was spring break and Sokka and Katara had brought all their friends to their dads’ farm to enjoy the fresh air and just be kids again before they headed back to the city for college and their jobs. Katara and her boyfriend Aang were standing next to the enclosure, Suki was holding the door closed from the inside and Toph, Zuko and Sokka were sitting next to the hatching eggs. Sokka was softly petting the mother, who was watching Zuko and Toph intently. Luckily, Sokka and Katara must have instructed them on how to deal with ostrich mothers because they were behaving very carefully. Toph had a baby ostrich in her lap and there was a bright smile and a slight blush on her face as the small animal nudged her hands and she could feel it wriggling around in her lap, getting comfortable. Zuko sat next to Sokka and there was another hatched ostrich baby settled on both their thighs and the two boys were tentatively petting it together, Zuko’s head resting on Sokka’s shoulder and the two of them making the perfect picture of serenity and happiness. Hakoda’s heart warmed at the sight and he softly took Bato’s hand and squeezed it.

The two joined the kids who were standing around the ostrich enclosure and watched as one after another, the twenty-four eggs started to hatch and the quiet of the enclosure was slowly but surely encased in the screeching and squawking of twenty-four hungry new-born ostrich chicks. Hakoda handed the four kids inside some yoghurt and ground pellets and they set to work with feeding the chicks as Aang and Katara slipped inside as well to be able to help and mostly pet the chicks as well.

‘Alright kids, we’ll leave this to y’all. Katara, Sokka you’re in charge, Hakoda and I have to let out the rest of the herd as well as the cows and horses’, Bato said, smiling at the six’s enthusiastic feeding and petting of the many little chicks.

After they had left the gang, Bato threw his arm around Hakoda, and pulled him close. Hakoda smiled at him and slid his arm around his husband’s midriff as he reminisced about the first time he and Bato and the kids had seen ostriches hatch.

‘What are you thinking about?’, Bato asked. ‘That’s your pensive face.’

‘I was just remembering when we first had our own hatching ostriches. I think we probably looked a lot like Sokka and Zuko did just now.’

Bato chuckled.

‘I’m sure we did. Those two really are quite cute together. You could even say that they’re zukka cute.’

Hakoda grimaced and tried to hold in a giggle.

‘They are. Now get your cute butt dressed, we have a lot of work to do today.’

Bato laughed, but the two of them hurried to get dressed and eat breakfast, ready for a long day of farm work.

They began by letting out the rest of the ostrich herd, filling up the feeding trays for the cows and letting them out of the stables and then getting their two horses Momo and Appa to go fix a fence in the horse enclosure, spending a good few hours working in the sun. Once they rode back to the ranch, they heard screaming and laughing and found Sokka, Zuko and Suki running around with water pistols and shooting each other. Suki was clearly the best at the game as she ducked out of the way with almost ninja-like agility and grace while Sokka and Zuko just succeeded in shooting each other in the face and doubling over laughing, finally just ending up laying on the ground while Suki kept shooting at them from her hiding point, drenching them to the bone. Hakoda thought he saw Sokka press a very wet kiss to Zuko’s cheek though, so he thought the two boys didn’t really mind that much.

‘Well y’all seem to be caught in quite the pickle’, Bato said, hopping off Momo and landing on the ground gracefully, his neon pink cowboy boots clinking on impact.

‘I think they’re in more of a puddle really, honeybun’, Hakoda commented, sliding off Appa as well.

‘I can see where you get your terrible jokes from, Sokka’, Zuko commented, not bothering to hide the smile on his face.

‘Excuse you, Mr. Grumpypants, my jokes are fucking hilarious and you love them’, Sokka protested, aghast.

‘I love _you_ , Sokka. I accept your jokes, there’s a difference’, Zuko said, the big smile on his face betraying his real feelings.

Sokka gasped and immediately rolled over to start wrestling Zuko to the ground, but he found that since they were both already lying on the ground, tickling his boyfriend was much more effective.

Suki came out of her hiding spot and smiled at Hakoda and Bato who were both holding in their laughter at the ridiculous scene of their son and his boyfriend rolling around in the dirt right in front of the stables.

‘Aang and Toph are with the chicks’, Suki said. ‘Katara is somewhere in the kitchen, she said to tell you guys to come look for her as soon as you come back.’

Hakoda raised his eyebrows.

‘Thanks, Suki. We’ll do that now’, Bato answered and after leading Momo and Appa onto the horse enclosure, the two of them headed into the house to see what Katara wanted from the.

They found her in the kitchen, hunching over something. She turned around as soon as her dads entered and smiled brightly.

‘Happy Anniversary!’, she said, holding out two saddlebags.

‘Thank you, Katara. What’s in the bag, though?’

‘Oh nothing. Some food. A bit of cake. Some drinks. A blanket. Maybe some candles that Aang snuck in, I can’t guarantee anything.’

Bato frowned.

‘What for?’, he asked, confused.

‘For you two! Did you really think we’d forget our dads’ fifth wedding anniversary? We’ve been planning to let you guys have an afternoon off for weeks now. So, take this with you, get Appa and Momo and get out of here! Go to that edge of the mountain not far from here, I’m sure you’ll be able to watch the sun go down from there’, Katara said, walking over to Hakoda and thrusting the bags into his hand.

‘But who’s going to feed the animals?’, Bato asked.

‘Sokka and I can manage that just fine. We have four people to help us as well, it’ll be fine. Now get going. I’m not taking no for an answer.’

Hakoda’s heart clenched, not for the first time today.

‘Katara, that’s so sweet, I-‘

‘I know, I know, now go. Have fun, dads’, she said, nearly shoving them out the kitchen door.

Bato and Hakoda said goodbye to the kids quickly, heading out to their horses again and saddling up for a ride to the nearby mountain. The kids waved them goodbye as they rode off into the afternoon. The trip was filled with pleasant silence and the occasional bad jokes as the two husbands relaxed and enjoyed their free time together. When they’d arrived at their favourite spot on the mountainside, they sat down and unpacked the saddlebags Katara had given them.

_Some food_ was an understatement, really. What Katara and the others had packed was a full-on feast and Hakoda and Bato enjoyed everything from a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to a small tub of sweet rice balls that Zuko had made. The apple pie, curtesy of Suki had been absolutely delicious and Sokka’s fried green tomatoes were surprisingly tasty. Aang and Toph had apparently collaborated on the candle choice. There were two candles in the bag, one with a surprisingly good macaroni artwork of Hakoda that was sadly not practical for lighting and one candle that looked like an abstract painting.

Hakoda laughed heartily when he saw the abstract candle and immediately lit it and put it carefully on top of a metal tray.

‘This is abstract art because nothing can really capture you’, he said grinning at Bato, who rolled his eyes but also leaned his head against Hakoda’s shoulder. Hakoda counted that as a win.

‘Happy anniversary, sweeeetums’, Bato said, drawing the pet name out and kissing Hakoda’s cheek again.

‘Happy anniversary, honeybun’, Hakoda echoed, leaning his head on Bato’s. ‘I actually got you something but it’s at home.’

‘Me too. I got you a hot pink cowboy hat I found in town the other day. It’s terrible’, Bato said, grinning like a fool and placing his hand on Hakoda’s.

‘Are you serious? I got you a neon green cowboy hat’, Hakoda answered, bursting into giggles.

‘Hey, same hat!’, Bato added, laughing along with his husband.

After the two sat in giggly silence for a few minutes and watched as the sun slowly set on the horizon, Hakoda turned to Bato and put both of his hands on the other’s face.

‘Bato, I really love you a lot. I’m so happy that I’ve been blessed with the last five years. Being able to wake up next to you every single day is just… indescribable. I’m truly and utterly in love with you. You really are the Yee to my Haw, honeybun.’

‘I love you too’, whispered Bato and kissed him tenderly and oh so sweetly, a big smile on his face.

When the two of them had finally packed up and headed back, they couldn’t wait to come back to their two or rather six kids that they’d adopted, their cows and horses and their twenty-four ostrich chicken.

Hakoda and Bato rode off into the sunset together and the world was beautiful.

**Author's Note:**

> I would like to apologize to anyone who actually knows shit about animals and farms and cowboys. I wrote this in one sitting because of a meme for the discord, because they deserve this. Let me know what you think!! Also, you're welcome to tell me my sense of humour is shit, this just proves it.


End file.
